South Cushitic languages
| South Cushitic | |
|---|---|
| Rift, Greater Rift | |
| Geographic distribution | Tanzania |
| Linguistic classification | Afro-Asiatic
|
| Subdivisions |
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| Language codes | |
| Glottolog | sout3054 |
The South Cushitic or Rift languages of Tanzania are a branch of the Cushitic languages. The most numerous is Iraqw, with one million speakers. Scholars believe that these languages were spoken by Southern Cushitic agro-pastoralists from Ethiopia, who began migrating southward into the Great Rift Valley in the third millennium BC.